Is the customer always right?

bmwguy · 14-02-2014 10:20PM #1

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was not true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

MadsL · 14-02-2014 10:22PM

bmwguy wrote: »

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was not true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

...and... you are fired.

EyeSight · 14-02-2014 10:23PM

No obviously but some people are so up themselves they don't realise it. Although they always have the best reaction when you stand up to them.

They are up there with the idiots who try to haggle because the afternoon show had an "expert" on who told the audience they should always haggle and it always works. If said shop does not give you a discount for haggling, respond with "do you know it's a recession?"

kneemos · 14-02-2014 10:26PM

I pay your wages....don't forget.

krudler · 14-02-2014 10:28PM

Christ no, usually the other way around. The ones who are in the right are usually the most level headed, the ones who THINK they're in the right are the most illogical abusive people you'll ever encounter. Working with the public would make you want to live on a desert island.

see the Cries of Retail thread for more :pac:

MadsL · 14-02-2014 10:28PM

EyeSight wrote: »

No obviously but some people are so up themselves they don't realise it. Although they always have the best reaction when you stand up to them.

They are up there with the idiots who try to haggle because the afternoon show had an "expert" on who told the audience they should always haggle and it always works. If said shop does not give you a discount for haggling, respond with "do you know it's a recession?"

Haggle...hmm.

Price match. Damn straight. I laughed when I saw the price of a memory card, and said come on "you can buy that for $20 online". Quick chat with a manager, $21.55, $40 cheaper.

squirestarter · 14-02-2014 10:30PM

The customer always being right is purely a western commercial construct

For example in Cuba, or worse, North Korea...the customer is not only wrong but needs to be told what to buy

Earthhorse · 14-02-2014 10:32PM

The customer is always righteous.

elperello · 14-02-2014 10:32PM

No the customer is not always right but he/she is always the customer.
If you can't get your head around that concept take a new path in employment.

krudler · 14-02-2014 10:33PM

kneemos wrote: »

I pay your wages....don't forget.

The last bastion of the desperate, along with "Joe Duffy will hear about this" or "I'll have your job".

weldoninhio · 14-02-2014 10:33PM

bmwguy wrote: »

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was nEAot true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

The customer is always right was a company slogan, your man who opened Selfridges used it in his Canadian shops i think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_customer_is_always_right

No more relevant in the real world than Just Do It (nike) or Its in the Game (EA Sports)

The Glass Key · 14-02-2014 10:36PM

"The customer is always right - until they leave the shop" as my boss once told me.

EyeSight · 14-02-2014 10:37PM

MadsL wrote: »

Haggle...hmm.

Price match. Damn straight. I laughed when I saw the price of a memory card, and said come on "you can buy that for $20 online". Quick chat with a manager, $21.55, $40 cheaper.

From my time working in a shop, if i ever gave in to a customer haggling I would be fired.

Price match is a different thing and usually the shops that do it have policies from head office.
In fairness though asking once is fair enough, but to keep it up and claiming the recession is bad is just being annoying

krudler · 14-02-2014 10:40PM

EyeSight wrote: »

From my time working in a shop, if i ever gave in to a customer haggling I would be fired.

Price match is a different thing and usually the shops that do it have policies from head office.
In fairness though asking once is fair enough, but to keep it up and claiming the recession is bad is just being annoying

When I worked for hmv people would try haggle all the time, you'd scan whatever it was they were buying and give them the price and usually get "will ya take tu-wenty cash dere now?" Uhhh, no, it's 45 quid, regardless of how you pay. "ahhh ya can do bettur dan dat now so ya can" gtfo you cabbage smelling buffoon.

Wereghost · 14-02-2014 10:44PM

bmwguy wrote: »

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was not true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

If he was being verbally abusive then he stopped being a customer. Still, those infants are a tiny minority of society, and encounters like those can be instructive for future scenarios.

120_Minutes · 14-02-2014 10:52PM

Customers Lie.

It was like that when i bought it. (no it wasnt)

I bought this here (no you didnt)

I only have it about a month (it's two years old)

I know my rights (you actually dont)

etc etc etc....

bmwguy · 14-02-2014 10:55PM

To the replies saying I'll get fired or get a new employment path, thanks I know its AH but I wont get fired, I'm the financial director of the company so I do have a different employment path!
I'll give you the situation, he bought a part from us for about 100 euro which was posted around lunchtime today. He called at about 4 pm saying he needed it quicker than the post would get it to him and demanded that I personally drive it to him (about 15 miles) and he would post the other one back when he got it. His rationale for this was that he bought a large product from us 3 years ago (about 10 grand). I basically told him nothing of the sort was happening.

Tin Foil Hat · 14-02-2014 11:01PM

bmwguy wrote: »

I had a tosser of a customer on to me today who repeatedly told me "the customer is always right". I told him that this was not true in this particular case and my work colleagues were shocked and apalled with me for saying so. He came on looking for a row and I gave him one. Just a note to add I dont work in customer service or sales and dont think I ever could, its just it was Friday evening, sales guys were gone home and I took a call. Why do people become absolute tools just because they bought something from your company?

"The customer is always right", is a soundbite. Nothing more. Unfortunately, a certain brand of childish, entitled arsehole has taken it as fact.

josip · 14-02-2014 11:08PM

bmwguy wrote: »

To the replies saying I'll get fired or get a new employment path, thanks I know its AH but I wont get fired, I'm the financial director of the company so I do have a different employment path!
I'll give you the situation, he bought a part from us for about 100 euro which was posted around lunchtime today. He called at about 4 pm saying he needed it quicker than the post would get it to him and demanded that I personally drive it to him (about 15 miles) and he would post the other one back when he got it. His rationale for this was that he bought a large product from us 3 years ago (about 10 grand). I basically told him nothing of the sort was happening.

It comes down to a judgement call I think. You need to do a Wayne Rooney type instantaneous calculation of the likelihood of repeat business, the margin on that, when it will happen, and how much of that you would ever personally get versus having to suck it up and give them what they want even if they're obnoxious. It's easier to decide if you're a business owner and you'll get most/all of the future profit.

Stained Class · 14-02-2014 11:08PM

When you're selling something & need the money, this is true.

If your customer descends into the realms of personal insults or is just looking for a row just for the sake of it.

Deck him.

It softens their cough fairly quickly, I find.

tomwaterford · 14-02-2014 11:20PM

Stained Class wrote: »

When you're selling something & need the money, this is true.

If your customer descends into the realms of personal insults or is just looking for a row just for the sake of it.

Deck him.

It softens their cough fairly quickly, I find.

have you decked many customers???:eek:

bop1977 · 14-02-2014 11:22PM

We had a customer ring us and bark down the phone "where the funk is my part".

On hearing the swear word he was hung up on.
Our manager was informed, who then rang his manager.
First thing next morning we got a grovelling apology.

Moral of this rambling story is that no the customer is not always right.

Pumpkinseeds · 14-02-2014 11:24PM

No they are not always right, I blame the Americans with their 'the customer is king' bulls*it.

blingrhino · 14-02-2014 11:28PM

Not even the customer believes this cliche I think !

average hero · 14-02-2014 11:30PM

If a customer or a member of staff has to utter, ponder or otherwise come across these words - then no, the customer is not right.

Stained Class · 14-02-2014 11:32PM

tomwaterford wrote: »

have you decked many customers???:eek:

Don't make a habit out of it TBH.

The odd one I decked thanked me for it.

Snapped them out of theirselves.

cat_dog · 14-02-2014 11:33PM

No, but sometimes you have to be nice/accomodating so you don't lose customers

Tigger · 14-02-2014 11:36PM

I don't lose bad customers I know where I buried their remains

The Backwards Man · 14-02-2014 11:36PM

The trick is getting the customer to believe they are always right whilst still riding them sideways.

There's an old saying 'If you have the name for rising early you can lie until dinnertime'

The art of selling is a dying one, sadly.

guppy · 14-02-2014 11:37PM

I was in a Swarovski shop a while ago buying a leaving gift for someone when an auld one came in screaming about something. The clerk dealing with her tried to tell her about the no return policy on earrings, but the customer screamed and screamed. The manager was helping me and exused herself to step in. In the end she authorised a full refund. I was not impressed at all.

Tldr, scream a lot, it works.

tomwaterford · 14-02-2014 11:41PM

Stained Class wrote: »

Don't make a habit out of it TBH.

The odd one I decked thanked me for it.

Snapped them out of theirselves.

WTF where do you work??

not a bouncer by any chance???

Is the customer always right?

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